venerdì 12 giugno 2015

Here it comes

Done! 
I spent one week to buy all the stuff I needed. Cables, ferrules, discs and some bolts but now it's finished.
It has been a pain in the neck to gather all the missing little things.
I had to buy a bottom bracket tool (a cheap BBB tool), pliers and cable ties as well.
Luckily I had with me the good old Ritchey 5nm portable tool that was very useful during the last stage of the project.
I started with the generic (chinese) TI fork, good for every season. Then I mounted the wheels, Bontrager, with the cx tyres (my last pair of Clement) and the very cheap disks. I know I could never ask more for 15 euro each however I fret it is going to be a problem the day I'll need to undo the job. I almost ruined the head of each bolt.
Getting on the bottom bracket wasn't a problem -besides the cheap tool that left some marks on the BB, and the crankset is very nice.
Perhaps the chain line is not so good, I don't feel comfortable using the big ring with the shortest range of my cassette. That because that ring seems too far from the center ot the cassette.
I believe that it'd be better to use a road crankset with one medioum sized ring (38 or 42) in conjunction with a MTB cassette (better 10s). This will most likely be the next upgrade (I could use the single ring spider from Sram and see which is the biggest ring allowed).
A 42-28 crankset with a 11-26 cassette is really fine for a road use with a heavy bike like this anyway.
Nothing less than a Thomson Elite and a good old (from 1992) flite under my pants. 
Now, a pretty curious event: for a couple of years I kept my drop bar setup on this bike using a vey short stem. Now I believe that was a big mistake. After using my cx bikes for a long time, I can tell that I'd need a longer stem on this frame. Said so, I'm thinking of a drop bar, again, on this bike.
We will talk later about this project, along with the new gear department.
Eventually, I used the good old Tites J bar with a pair of XT dual control. Now, I know: dual control. However that's the best choice for a good combo to use on this bar.
Some good thoughts regarding the ride on the next posts.
C